1 The Structures of Globalization.pdf

THE STRUCTURES OF GLOBALIZATION JOSHUA CEDRIC AQUINO GUNDAYAO, MA, MOHRE GLOBALIZATION: A WORKING DEFINITION u Most accounts view globalization as primarily an economic process. u When a newspaper reports that nationalists are resisting "globalization," it usually refers to the i...

THE STRUCTURES OF GLOBALIZATION JOSHUA CEDRIC AQUINO GUNDAYAO, MA, MOHRE GLOBALIZATION: A WORKING DEFINITION u Most accounts view globalization as primarily an economic process. u When a newspaper reports that nationalists are resisting "globalization," it usually refers to the integration of the national markets into a wider global market signified by the increased free trade. GLOBALIZATION: A WORKING DEFINITION u When activists refer to the "anti- globalization” movement of the 1990s, they mean resisting the trade deals among countries facilitated and promoted by global organizations like the World Trade Organization. GLOBALIZATION: A WORKING DEFINITION u The best scholarly description of globalization is provided by Manfred Steger who described the process as "the expansion and intensification of social relations and consciousness across world- time and across world-space." EXPANSION u Expansion refers to "both the creation of new social networks and the multiplication of existing connections that cut across traditional political, economic, cultural, and geographic boundaries.” u These various connections occur at different levels. INTENSIFICATION u Intensification refers to the expansion, stretching, and acceleration of these networks. u Not only are global connections multiplying, but they are also becoming more closely- knit and expanding their reach. GLOBALIZATION: A WORKING DEFINITION u Stegernotes that "globalization processes do not occur merely at an objective, material level but they also involve the subjective plane of human consciousness.”’ GLOBALIZATION: A WORKING DEFINITION u In other words, people begin to feel that the world has become a smaller place and distance has collapsed from thousands of miles to just a mouse-click away. GLOBALIZATION: A WORKING DEFINITION u Steger posits that his definition of globalization must be differentiated from an ideology he calls globalism. GLOBALIZATION: A WORKING DEFINITION u If globalization represents the many processes that allow for the expansion and intensification of global connections, globalism is a widespread belief among powerful people that the global integration of economic markets is beneficial for everyone, since it spreads freedom and democracy across the world. GLOBALIZATION FROM THE GROUND UP u Foranthropologist Arjun Appadurai, different kinds of globalization occur on multiple and intersecting dimensions of integration that he calls "scapes." GLOBALIZATION FROM THE GROUND UP u An"ethnoscape," for example, refers to the global movement of people, while a "mediascape" is about the flow of culture. GLOBALIZATION FROM THE GROUND UP uA "technoscape" refers to the circulation of mechanical goods and software; a "financescape" denotes the global circulation of money; and an "ideoscape" is the realm where political ideas move around. THE STRUCTURES OF GLOBALIZATION JOSHUA CEDRIC AQUINO GUNDAYAO, MA, MOHRE